Banner Posted Accusing Man of Working for ICE — But He Doesn't

The owner of Newburyport's Salon Bellisimo said a sign targeting her business and husband was found nearby.

(Published Tuesday, July 16, 2019)

A Massachusetts business owner says she fears for her safety because of a misunderstanding about a sign that claimed incorrectly that her husband is a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent.

Salon Bellisimo owner Elaine Devereaux said she became upset after finding the sign outside her Newburyport business Saturday morning.

"It was hanging right down there like flopping in the wind," said Devereaux.

The hand-written, roughly 6-foot-wide sign was zip-tied to the Clipper City Rail Trail bridge. The sign targeted Devereaux's salon and her husband — who works for the Department of Homeland Security — misidentifying him as an ICE agent and salon owner while calling him "a danger to our community."

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"He's not an ICE agent. I mean I don't know who would do it, who would put two and two together and come up with five. It's just ridiculous," Devereaux said.

Protests against ICE have sprung up in Massachusetts across the country in reaction to a policy that has left children and other migrants locked in detention centers. Some have compared the facilities to concentration camps, though President Donald Trump defended the detention centers as necessary.

Mayor Donna Holaday met with the Devereauxs, encouraged them to file a police report and connected them with the city's Human Rights Commission.